Besides overall costs, fuel efficiency and exhaust emissions are increasingly important aspects of a vehicle. Managers of fleets of vehicles, for instance a fleet of company cars, vans and trucks, are therefore seeking means to manage and monitor these aspects, preferably by using an integrated system that is able to monitor both individual vehicles and the entire fleet. Further, driver behaviour could have a major influence on fuel consumption. Therefore, monitoring the behaviours of the driver is also am important aspect. In addition, with increasing fuel prices, fraudulent transactions and theft occur more frequently.
There exist various methods and systems to monitor the vehicle efficiency and driver behaviour. U.S. patent application 2007174004 discloses a system and method to identify fuel savings opportunities in a fleet of vehicles based on fuel consumption corresponding to driving habits of the user. Inefficient driving habits, for example, speeding and excessive idling, unauthorized usage, provides opportunities for fuel savings. Such parameters can be monitored and fuel consumption based on the use conditions is determined. A user defined statistical metric for the fleet, or a portion of the fleet, can be determined for each of the use conditions. Fuel consumption of an individual vehicle or a group of vehicles can be compared with a larger group of vehicles, or the fleet, to determine vehicles that correspond to a metric of the fleet. Fleet managers can use this information to modify the use conditions of individual vehicles to provide fuel savings for the fleet.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,024,142-A discloses a communications system and method for communications between a vessel and a fluid management system. The communications system comprises a proximity detector configured to detect presence of a fuel nozzle in a fluid entry port of the vessel. The system also comprises a Radio frequency Identification (RFID) coupled to the proximity detector. The proximity detector, coupled with RFID interrogator, is configured to communicate whether the nozzle is in the fluid entry port. To impede theft of fuel, the method comprises the steps of establishing a first communication link between a vehicle and a fuel delivery system. Further, a second communication link between the vehicle and the fuel delivery system established. Thereafter, and the system provides the delivery of fuel based on the connectivity of the first communication link.
In addition to the two exemplary prior art systems described above, other fuel management systems are known. The present invention however aims to provide an improved and integrated fuel management system and method.